Volley Cards defeat N.D....Women's Soccer beats USF 2-1...Dream fall to Lynx...Velasquez wins singles in tennis.

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Lola, Brauneis key Cardinal Volleyball win

-Exeter's "heads up" leads Soccer Cards to 2-1 victory

-Atlanta, Angel fall in 4th quarter to Minnesota

-Freshman Velazquez wins singles final at Wake Forest

The University of Louisville Volleyball team defeated Notre Dame 3-1 in action at South Bend yesterday afternoon. After dropping the first game to the Irish 17-25...UofL roared back and took the final three games 25-16, 25-22 and 25-21 to secure the match. The win drops the Irish to 8-6, 1-3 and the Cards improve to 12-4, 4-0.

Stepping up big again for Louisville was Lola Arslanbekova. The junior outside hitter had 28 kills against Notre Dame and was especially dominant in game three for the Cards...scoring six out of the last seven points to get the win.

Lola likes it! Cards win!

It was a slow start to Sunday action for Anne Kordes' team, falling behind 12-3 to the Irish in game one. Louisville managed to get within six late in the contest at 21-15 but ended up on the short end of the 17-25 final.

The Cards got Lola involved early in the second game and used a 11-3 run midway through the action to build a comfortable lead that the Irish couldn't diminish. Lola's seven kills and Emily Juhl's three blocked helped the Cards to a 25-16 win and knotted the match at 1-1. 

Game three was a nip and tuck affair....Louisville falling behind 13-10 but getting three straight scores from Emily Juhl to create a 16-16 tie. Notre Dame fought back to grab a 19-17 lead but Lola took over from there and Louisville pounded out a hard fought 25-22 victory.

The Cards jumped on the Irish early in the final game and led 17-10 before a furious Notre Dame got them within two at 21-19. Emily Juhl got the winner for Louisville with a kill at 24-21
to end Sunday's action.

The Cards got an eye-popping 56 assists from Taylor Brauneis in the match.

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Christine Exeter used her head yesterday. Literally. Her head shot, on a kick from Devyn Ciotti, found the net in overtime and Louisville won 2-1 over the Bulls. With the win, the Cards improve to 5-5-3 and 3-1-2 in BIG EAST play.

USF started the day's scoring early...connecting on a goal just five minutes into action. It took the Cards just two minutes to tie it, though. Angelika Uremovich chased down a block by the USF goalkeeper and sent it back toward the net successfully. After that, the game evolved into a defensive struggle until Exeter's heroics in overtime. The Cards out shot the Bulls 24-12 overall and had a decisive 15-6 advantage on shots on goal. Chloe Kiefer finished with five saves at goalkeeper for UofL. 

The Cards pack the bags and head out for two BIG EAST game next...Villanova is the first stop on Friday and Georgetown on Sunday.


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The Atlanta Dream fell to the Minnesota Lynx 88-74 in the first game of the WNBA Finals...despite 33 points from Angel McCoughtry. Despite being shackled with foul trouble in the first half, #35 came out and scored nineteen of her points in the third quarter. The Lynx came out on fire in the fourth quarter and, with hot shooting and some crucial Atlanta turnovers, went on a 13-0 run which put them ahead to stay.

The Dream dominated early in the game, leading by double digits several times in the second quarter. Lindsey Harding and Iziane Castro Marquez picked up the scoring slack for the foul plagued Angel and strong rebounding by Alison Bales pushed Atlanta to a 29-17 advantage.

Led by Rebekkah Brunson and Semoine Augustus, the Lynx fought back and rode a third quarter surge that saw them grab a 51-49 lead. The contest was tied 62-62 after three.

In the end, Minnesota's rebound advantage 40-28, scoring domination in the paint (52-30) and 11 blocked shots overcame the Dream's quickness. Without post player Erika DeSouza, Atlanta was over-matched and out-played in the paint. DeSouza led Brazil's national team to a Olympics qualifying berth over the weekend but is expected to suit up for Atlanta in game two on Wednesday.

McCoughtry was spectacular in defeat. She dominated the third quarter with an assortment of jumpers, spin moves, steals and blocks. The Target Center crowd of over 15,000, though, rallied the home team and the Lynx takes the early lead in the series.

"The crowd energizes them and it just weighs you down." McCoughtry commented after the game. "It's good to know that we were the ones that kind of messed ourselves up. That's a good thing for us because we can adjust that."

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The Louisville women's tennis team may have found the star of the future yesterday in freshman Manuela Velasquez. She won the B - Singles yesterday in the Wake Forest Invitational and teamed up with Amelia Harris to win the doubles also.

Velasquez, a Queens, NY resident, is a great story. Her parents chose home schooling for her for high school because her early participation in tournaments was hurting her grades. Although she missed high school activities like proms and a formal graduation, she says it didn't affect her socially and feels it helped her academically. 

Velasquez has overcome obstacles to become a Cardinal



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"It wasn't hard to keep up. It was just staying disciplined and completing the work."

She's also overcome two serious injuries to reach the college level. A torn ACL in 2008 and two torn ligaments in her shoulder in 2010 kept her off the mainstream college recruiting circuits. Mark Beckham, UofL's head women's coach, saw the potential there, though and successfully got her on the Cardinal campus...beating out Long Island University and Boston College for her services.